PE firm to invest $498m in India’s Reliance Retail

Bloomberg

General Atlantic will invest 36.8 billion rupees ($498 million) in billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s retail venture as Asia’s richest man continues to garner funds after securing more than $20 billion for his digital services unit earlier this year.
The private equity firm will hold a 0.84% stake in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, according to an exchange filing on Wednesday, giving the business a pre-money equity value of 4.29 trillion rupees.
Shares of the parent, Reliance Industries Ltd, jumped as much as 5.6% during trading in Mumbai after the deal was announced.
The deal follows US private equity group KKR & Co’s $754 million investment and Silver Lake Partner’s $1 billion investment in September in the unit. Ambani has been increasing his focus on consumer businesses to tap the growth in both offline and online retail in India’s market of billion-plus consumers.
In his pivot towards technology and retail — away from the group’s staple oil-refining business — Ambani, 63, has raised more than $20 billion by selling stakes in Jio Platforms Ltd, his digital
services unit. Investors including Facebook Inc and Google bought a combined 33% in that venture this year.
Like KKR and Silver Lake’s investments in Reliance Retail, this infusion makes General Atlantic a repeat investor
in Ambani’s consumer businesses. The New York-based private equity firm had invested $873 million in Jio Platforms to pick up a 1.3% stake in May.